Gender And Higher Education In Pakistan: Shaikh Muhammad Ali Project Director (hrd) E-mail: Higher Education Commission

Gender and Higher Education in Pakistan

Shaikh Muhammad Ali Project Director (HRD) E-mail: [email protected] Higher Education Commission www.hec.gov.pk

14th January 2007

Overview  HEC Mission  HRD & Scholarship Vision  Challenges and Govt. Action  HEC Strategy & Aims  Faculty Development  Projecting Enrollments & Gender Education  Recommendations  Conclusions

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HEC Mission

“To Facilitate Institutions of Higher Learning to serve as an Engine of Socio-Economic Development of Pakistan”

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HRD & Scholarship Vision

“To

offer merit based scholarships on equal opportunity with no gender biases or preferences”

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Challenges & Government Actions

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Higher Education Fuels National Growth National Growth Trained Manpower Government

Society HEC

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Implementation Socio-Economic Development Plans Economic, Industrial, Services Infrastructure, Governance, Defence Human Capital Higher Education: Knowledge Base

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Pakistan: Public Sector Management World Bank Report, Jan. 2004 Extracts  “In Education Pakistan appears to be at least 35 – 40 years behind East Asian Countries, and 10 – 15 years behind the South Asian Countries”  During the past decades, “per-student spending at higher education levels declined by as much as 50% in real terms”  “The next few years represent a period of great opportunity for Pakistan to accelerate its economic & social development”

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Why Top Down:

Higher Education is a tool for Poverty Alleviation

 The World Bank’s* assistance in tertiary education seeks to generate economic growth as a mechanism for sustainable poverty eradication. This goal is promoted by:  Building Advanced Human Capital  Enhancing and funding domestic research for adapting foreign technologies  Preparing individuals for less profitable and socially desirable careers *Providing Skills for the knowledge economy …. L.B. Holm-Nielsen, A. Bloom, P L Garcia-Zuniga

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Key Areas of Improvement  Access  Low enrollment in higher education  Quality  Poor standard of faculty and lack of training / capacity building  Low quality of teaching & research and lack of relevance to national needs  Poor governance of universities  Relevance  Minimal relevance of higher education to national needs 54 Years of Neglect

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Overarching Approach  Simultaneous Bi-Modal Approach Required  Bottom-Up  Basic Health, Primary Education, Water ….  Top-Down  Higher Education  Technology Development  Industrial Linkages

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HEC Strategy and Aims Medium Term Development Framework

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Core

HEC Strategic Aims

Faculty Development

Improving Access

Excellence in Learning & Research

Relevance to National Priorities

Support

Good Governance & Management Quality Assurance: Standards, Assessment, Accreditation Infrastructure Development: Physical / Technological

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Faculty Development Programs and Achievements

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Achievements: Faculty Development  Human Resource Development Male

   

Indigenous PhD Foreign MS/PhD Post doctoral In-service training

Female Total

1,474 336 1,754 242 239 20 873 537

Percentage

1,810 18.56% 1,996 12.12% 259 7.72% 1,410 38.08%

 Reverse Brain Drain  Foreign Faculty Hiring 198

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207

4.34%

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Gender-wise enrollment in Universities 2001-04

Sector

2001-02

Male

Female

Male

2003-04

Female

Male

Female

Public

141569

90832

162407

114077

199553

162575

Private

32935

10938

41272

13989

44960

16148

174,504

101,770

203,679

128,066

244,513

178,723

Total

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2002-03

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Gender-wise enrollment in Universities 2001-04 250000

200000

150000 Public Private Total

100000

50000

0 2001-02

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2002-03

2003-04

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Universities / Colleges for Females  Fatima Jinnah Women University (RWP)  Frontier Women University (PEW)  Sardar Bahadur Khan Women University (Quetta)  Fatima Jinnah Medical College (LHE)

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Projecting Enrollments & Gender Education Increasing Access to Higher Education and Gender Issues

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Gender and Education - I  The educational status of women in Pakistan is abysmally low, in fact, amongst the lowest in the world. The problem emanates at the primary level, as low participation and high dropouts at that stage prevent females from reaching higher education and equitable opportunities for such furtherance do not become available to the female gender.  According to the Ministry of Women Development, only 19% of females have attained education up to Matric, 8% up to Intermediate, 5% a Bachelor’s degree and 1.4% achieved a Master’s degree. 60% of the female adult population is illiterate.

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Gender and Education - II  Of the 3.3 million out of school children, 2.503 million are girls. 73.6% of primary age girls attend school, compared with 92.1% of boys. Moreover, a sizeable majority of rural girls drop out of primary schools.  Women in Pakistan do not form a homogenous entity, their opportunities vary greatly with the social system that they are part of. In rural areas, patriarchal structures often combined with poverty limit opportunities to women, while women belonging to the upper and middle classes have increasingly greater access to education and employment opportunities and can assume greater control over their lives.

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Current Enrollment Patterns World Bank Report on MTDF - 2006  Higher Education Participation in Pakistan is low. In 2004-05, the number of enrollments in higher education totaled 534,000 or 2.5% of the corresponding age group. If enrollments in affiliated colleges are included, the number of students in the higher education sub sectors (HESS) increases to 807,000 which still represents only 3.8 % of the corresponding age group.  The government’s commitment to increasing higher education participation is expressed in the MTDF target of increasing the university enrollment ratio to 6% of the relevant age group by 2010. 21

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Share of Female Higher Education World Bank Report on MTDF - 2006  The share of female higher education has increased from 28 % in 2001-02 to 34% in 2003-04. At the Bachelor level, women are fairly well represented in general and Medical universities (37 and 54% of total enrollments, respectively in 2003-04), but less so in Agricultural and Engineering Universities (15%).  The same pattern is found at the Masters level, where women represented 42% of enrollments in general universities and 27% in Agriculture universities.  At the PhD level, the proportion of women is shrinking and dips to 28 percent. They still made up a greater share then men in Medical Sciences (54%) but only 15% in Engineering fields. 22

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Recommendations  Hiring of teachers and teacher training should be oriented towards reducing the gender gaps  Providing additional resources for provinces with wider gender gaps  Strong linkages between federal and provincial education departments and research organizations for collection & compiling of gender related data so it can provide policy inputs  Setting up of powerful gender groups in federal and provincial education departments  Merit based structures in educational institutions for admissions and faculty hiring / promotions with no gender biases

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Conclusion  Higher Education is key to:  Sustainable poverty reduction & removing gender biases  Building Pakistan’s Human Capital

 There is a strong revival of the Higher Education Sector  HEC Focus is on:    

Efficient implementation of Programs Good Governance and Management Capacity Building Relevance to National Priorities

 Medium Term Development Framework  Objectives, Strategy, Programs and Performance Targets  Additional Funding Required to Achieve Targets

Higher Education Commission Fuelling National Growth 24

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